Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader still has some comments to make on the whole “Christian” discussion that is going on here, and elsewhere. By “elsewhere” your Maximum Leader means specificially the insightful comments by Bill on his blog Bill’s Comments. You should click through and read his thoughts on this discussion.

Your Maximum Leader wants to get a quick jab in first thing this morning. First off, he is disappointed in the Smallholder’s use of Google hits to try to “prove” his claim of non-major sects not really being Christians. A Google of “roman catholic” + cult gets you 137,000 matches; and presbyterian + cult gets you 65,00 matches; “presbyterian church” + cult gets you 21,300 matches; and so on… Your Maximum Leader’s disappointment is mainly in the claim to false authority, namely that googling terms can make an authoritative case for or against anything.

Now the Smallholder may still have a perfectly valid point here. Namely that the non-trinitarian churches listed may not be “Christian” churches. One can make a persuasive case for the Mormons not being “Christian” in the traditional sense. As the Smallholder points out, their holy texts supercede the Biblical stories that are the foundation of other “mainstream” Christian churches.

But this may not apply to other groups under discussion. For the Christian Scientists, “Science & Health” is not concedered to supercede the Bible; it is believed to be a “key” to understand the meaning of Bible. Your Maximum Leader is unaware of any Jehovah’s Witness’ texts that hold a status equal to or superior to the Bible. And the Smallholder didn’t mention the Congregationalists.

The Congregationalists are the modern decendents of the Puritan settlers of New England. They deny the Trinity but accept Jesus, and his teachings as the key to salvation. This would be the same argument your Maximum Leader would use to counter the proposition that Jews and Muslims could also be considered “Christians” by use of the broader (dictionary if you will) definition of “Christian.” Jews and Muslims do not accept Jesus as the final word in salvation. Mormons, Christian Scientists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Congregationalists, member of the United Church of Christ, and Quakers (to name a few) do; they just reject the divinity of Jesus.

Your Maximum Leader will concede that denying a core tenet of a Christian religious order may make you a bad member of that order doctrinally. But does it also exclude you from the ranks of “Christians?”

Carry on.